But there was a certain man called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one: Acts 8:9
verse 18-And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money.
verse 19-Saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost.
Simon
"The Samaritan magician living in the age of the apotles and usually designated in later history as Simon Magus. According to Justin Martyr (Apol. 1.26) he was born at Gitton, a village of Samaria, identified with modern Kuryet Jit, near Nablus. He probably was educated at Alexandria and there became acquainted with the various tenets of the Gnostic school. Either then or subsequently he was a pupil of Dositheus, who preceded him as a teacher of Gnosticism in Samaria and whom he supplanted with the aid of Cleobius. He was first introduced in the Bible as practicing magical arts in a city of Samaria (perhaps Sychar; Acts 8:5; cf. John 4:5), with such success that he was pronounced to be "the Great Power of God" (Acts 8:10). The preaching and miracles of Philip excited him, and he became one of his disciples and was baptized. Subsequently he witnessed the effect produced by the laying on of hands, practiced by the apostles Peter and John, and, desiring to acquire a similar power, he offered money for it. His object evidently was to apply the power to pursuing magical arts. The motive and the means were equally to be condemned, and his proposition met with a severe denunciation from Peter. It was followed by a petition on the part of Simon, the tenor of which revealed terror but not penitence (v.24).
The word simony is derived from his endeavor to obtain functions by bribe.
(Unger's Bible Dic., pg.1197)